SPRECKELS MANSION TO GO ON MARKET

$16.9M is anticipated price for site of mysterious deaths in ’11

The Coronado mansion where millionaire Jonah Shacknai’s son and girlfriend died in 2011 is expected to be listed within the next four to six weeks, the home’s real estate broker said.

The anticipated asking price for the renovated property is $16.9 million, said Scott Aurich, of Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty.

Also known as the Spreckels Mansion, the historic home was the site of the two deaths, which drew national attention because of their mysterious circumstances and connections to the CEO and founder Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. in Arizona.

Police discovered Jonah Shacknai’s girlfriend, Rebecca Zahau, in July 2011 bound and hanging from the mansion’s balcony two days after Shacknai’s 6-year-old son, Max, was severely hurt from a second-story fall. Max died days later.

Investigators called Zahau’s death a suicide and Max’s death an accident.

After those incidents, Shacknai entered a deal with a group of investors to renovate the 12,750-square-foot house for resale, said Aurich, the real estate broker. The terms of that deal and the people involved were not disclosed.

The last recorded sale date for the oceanfront mansion is March 2007, when Shacknai bought it for $12.75 million, based on records of the 10-bedroom, 9½-bath property.

The investor group recently finished the home’s yearlong rehab.

The “top-to-bottom upgrade,” as Aurich describes it, includes a new roof on the main house, fresh exterior paint, refurbished wood flooring and upgrades to several rooms.

No changes were made to the balcony.

The home was briefly active on the Multiple Listing Service but was withdrawn until completion of the project, Aurich said.

In the listing, the property is described as “one of the premier oceanfront beach compounds in all of Southern California ... overlooking one of the most beautiful beaches in the world!”

The beach house, at 1043 Ocean Blvd., was built in 1907 for sugar magnate John D. Spreckels.

At one point, Spreckels was the wealthiest man in San Diego, controlling everything from railways to the Union-Tribune Publishing Co.